The Feldenkrais Method is a system of gentle movement exercises meant to bring conscious attention to the bodily experience. In a traditional therapeutic context, the system is used to treat both physical and mental conditions by improving communication between the body and the brain’s motor cortex. Armentrout uses the Feldenkrais Method to understand everyday movements and environments as she integrates them into her artistic work as a choreographer.

Founding director of Mary Armentrout Dance Theater, Armentrout is currently in residence at EMPAC to develop a new site-specific performance in downtown Troy, along with media artist Ian Winters, composer Evelyn Ficarra, and performer Chris Evans. Workshop participants will work with the full group of collaborators to not only learn Fledenkrais technique but to also begin integrating gestures and movement within contemporary media technology, especially the GoPro camera.

Participants need not have any dance or media experience. Comfortable clothing is suggested. While the workshop is free, capacity is limited; please arrive early and check in at the EMPAC box office to ensure participation.

The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is where the arts, sciences, and technology interact with and influence each other by using the same facilities and technologies, and by breathing the same air. EMPAC hosts artists and researchers to produce and present new work in a building designed with sophisticated architectural and technical infrastructure. Four exceptional venues and studios enable audiences, artists, and researchers to inquire, experiment, develop, and experience the ever-changing relationship between ourselves, technology, and the worlds we create around us. EMPAC is an icon of the New Polytechnic, a new paradigm for cross-disciplinary research and learning at Rensselaer, the nation’s oldest technological research university.